wikiHow wikiHow Staff: Can you just please tell us a little bit about yourself, about your expertise and how you came to be a professional organizer? Julie Naylon: My name is Julie Naylon:. My business is called No Wire Hangers Professional Organizing. I pretty much was born a professional organizer, in some ways. So much so that I didn't realize it was a skill until I started working with people, even as a young kid I was helping my friends and working with people and realized that I really had a passion for it and I also had a skill at it. So I’ve pretty much been organizing my whole life and then started my company about 12 years ago, and have been doing it full time since then. wikiHow Staff: Well, congratulations on hitting 12 years and hopefully this next year is as productive and successful as well. What are some common mistakes you have seen people make when starting or planning to declutter? Julie Naylon: Common mistakes that I see is people go out and buy a bunch of organizing products. They'll buy bins and baskets and everything. I always say shopping is the last thing we do, because you really don't know what you're going to need to organize or where things are going yet. So buying things in advance can sometimes just add more to the clutter. wikiHow Staff: Definitely, yeah, it sounds as though adding more things might seem like you're going to be well prepared or you think that you're feeling good by buying more things but sometimes it just overwhelms. Julie Naylon: I always laugh when I read those articles that say Top 50 things that will get you organized, they’re just lying. When I'm working with clients and organizing, we’re able to repurpose things that they already have. So it's a good way to think about just because this was used for this purpose, you might be able to use it for something else. So I'm always trying to be creative with that. So we really don't have to go out and buy more things. wikiHow Staff: I love that answer of repurposing new things. That actually gives a great leeway into the next question I have for you, I'm thinking about giving my room a makeover, that I can make over reorganize my room without adding unnecessary clutter or buying new things, so if I was a teenage girl or boy and I really wanted to reorganize and get my room a makeover, what are some tips that you would have for doing so without adding more things to the room? Julie Naylon: I've always encouraged people to move furniture around. It's amazing. People think that just the way the layout is, that it always has to be that way. I love pushing furniture around and moving things that really gives them instant change, and also can spark your creativity for other areas, whether you're doing a teenage bedroom with a bulletin board or whatnot. So that can definitely help and also moving things around, it lets you find some hidden clutter or things that you didn't know and just really helps you get going with the organizational process. wikiHow Staff: As you were mentioning moving furniture around, do you have any specific personal insights on where you think certain furniture should be or arranged in a way that not only makes it livable, but also productive to not clutter even more? Julie Naylon: Yeah, definitely. Everything I do is customized. So I really work with the person so I don't have any “this is how it should be” anecdotes, but it's really good to have an open mind and to try different things. Then also think about how you definitely not only visually how it's going to look but how you function in the space. I always think about when kids are having a hard time putting the laundry in the laundry basket, is the laundry basket easy to get to? So I’m always trying to think about those things and how you really function and make it easy so that everything we set up will work for you, for them. wikiHow Staff: As we're thinking about the room itself, obviously a big component to the room is the closet, we store clothes or hopefully we're storing our clothes in our closet. What are some mistakes or what are some common errors you have seen when people are trying to reorganize or trying to store their clothes in their closet? Julie Naylon: I really take everything out in groups, but a lot of times I see a lot of stuff in people's closets that don't necessarily need to be there. I realize sometimes we’re short on storage, but when I get in there and find paperwork and all different kinds of things, I usually like to get those out and I also like to move out if possible, if there is a coat closet, a front hall coat closet, I like to move coats out of the closet because that can take up a lot of space and really bulk it up. So taking those things out, but just really trying to keep everything in the closet down to things that you wear. So that when you walk in there, you don't feel like you've got all different kinds of things falling down on top of you. wikiHow Staff: What if I'm trying to maximize the closet space I have, maybe it's small or maybe I realized that I do have a lot of clothes that I don't want to declutter, if you had a client with that scenario, how would you help them maximize those closet spaces? Julie Naylon: When you look in the closet, if you can see the walls of the closet, you're not maximizing the space. I always tell people to look up, look down if you can see space there and then also think about what's the easiest to access, call it prime real estate. You want to put the things there that you want to gain access to the most. wikiHow Staff: From your own experience, what are the necessities in terms of accessibility to have in my closet? What should I be getting? Easy to grab with? What are some different items? Julie Naylon: If you're a person who works out every morning, you'd want to have your workout clothes front and center. It just really depends on what you're wearing most of the time. You can also switch up things seasonally and have the winner stuff in the lower rack or easiest to access and swap out seasonal items. wikiHow Staff: Previously we were chatting a little bit about laundry baskets. My next question is related to the laundry room itself. What are some tips you have or some hacks you have for organizing a laundry room? Both to have it clutter free but also to have it productive for the user. Julie Naylon: I always try to gain some space if your washer and dryers aren't stacked, I like to keep everything clear off the top of the washer and dryer as possible. Just create a nice space for you to be able to fold. So clearing that space off and then if you can put any detergent in a cupboard or close by not too far away, since you're going to be using that for the washer all the time. Just keeping the top of it clear as much as possible and keeping it open and easy to get in and out of because it’s a room most people access a lot. wikiHow Staff: Regarding organizing clothes, do you have your own personal philosophy or approach to folding and storing shirts specifically? Julie Naylon: I usually like to put away clothes. Everything I do is customized but a good rule of thumb to start with is I like to hang everything by type or by style and then by color so you'd have all your long sleeve shirts together, short sleeve and then the tanks and then do them by color from either dark to light or light to dark. wikiHow Staff: From that question, do you see the benefit of folding versus rolling or the other way around? Julie Naylon: I take a couple of things into consideration, one, what's going to be the easiest for them to maintain? Because I don't want to do something too elaborate if it's not their style of putting stuff away. So I think about that and then also think about the space itself. Because that can dictate exactly how things should be placed. If you have a lot of shelves and not enough hanging, if the client has all their jeans hung, I'd say, “well, let's take the jeans off the hangers and fold those and put those on the shelf”. That will give us more room for hanging. A lot of times the closet will dictate exactly where things should go. wikiHow Staff: I apologize if some of these questions are a little bit more broad. These are very general questions from our readers. My next question is similar to the clothes and specifically for undergarments, so underwear or panties or whatever you use for your undergarments, and I'm curious, do you have any specific approaches you would say or advise a client on in terms of not only folding them, but also storing them? Julie Naylon: Yeah, you should pick a location. That’s usually one of the first things that we would decide on where they were gonna go because that's something that obviously you're going to go to every day. So we want to make sure that that's got a prime real estate spot and where you're able to access them, an easy in and out. I would never put them farther away from everything else. If you have a walk-in closet, ideally, it should be in there. If you don't have drawers you can get bins or baskets and make your own. It's up to you whether or not you want to fold your underwear or not. I think as long as it's all together, that's the most important. wikiHow Staff: My next question is actually probably going to have a similar connotation. There are people that love to hang all of their clothes and there's some people that want to neatly put them in cabinets or dressers. How would you decide whether or not you wanted to hang up a shirt or just fold it and store it if you had the option to do both? Julie Naylon: Yeah, definitely. It depends on the material, there's some things that are going to wrinkle really easily. So usually a lot more dress shirts and things like that or anything that's not going to fold as well. Usually, pajamas and workout tops and those things all go in a drawer but I encourage people who have nice t-shirts, they don't have to go in the drawer, you could hang those, and they'll keep them so they're not getting wrinkled. It just depends on your space. But don't ever think that there's all these rules of what you can and can't hang. You could hang everything in your closet if you want to, but I think sometimes people think “oh, you shouldn't put a T-shirt on a hanger”. But you really can if you have the space and they’re your good t-shirts and you don't want them wrinkled. wikiHow Staff: Decluttering and organizing is a very personal and personalized experience. Of course you have different scenarios and situations with closet spaces and dressers, but at the same time, it's about what makes you the most productive and easiest for you to figure out how to organize your own clothes. Julie Naylon: Yes. wikiHow Staff: My last question related to storing clothes is a scenario, imagine you're just packing a suitcase for a trip or just a holiday weekend. How would you effectively store pants or fold or roll different types of pants while also keeping in mind you have to take other things in your suitcase. Julie Naylon: Rolling really does maximize the space in a suitcase. So if you can roll, that will definitely use up all the space properly. The other that you can think about too, if you’re packing boots or anything like that, there's obviously going to be open space in the boot. So if you really maximize every inch of inside the suitcase, you could put socks in there or any other thing to use that space also, because that's just going to be open space within the suitcase. wikiHow Staff: My last set of questions for our conversation today is just related to just miscellaneous storing and organizing. If you're staring at a client's desk, maybe it's their work desk, or at home personal desk, it's pretty cluttered, it has a lot of papers around, what would be your approach to first understanding having a game plan for decluttering that space, and then how would you keep it clutter free, moving forward? Julie Naylon: I would break things down into categories. If you decide you're just going to deal with paperwork, gather all the paperwork in the office and sit and sort and figure out what you need to keep and what you can let go of, a good question to ask too is: is this available online? or how hard is it for me to get this piece of paper if I needed to have it again? Same with office supplies, group all the office supplies together, so if you can go through, figure out what you actually need on the desk, and then I would store anything else in a bag and do a back stock office supply. So instead of going to the store, you will go to your own drawer and pull up new pens when you need them. wikiHow Staff: Do you have any specific insights on maintaining a very clutter free or very tidy desk or organization system? Julie Naylon: Yeah, I only have two pieces of paper in my house, I treat paper like it's on fire. When it comes in, I scan it and digitize it and then recycle. I also cut down on the junk mail that we have coming into the house so we hardly get any mail, that just will help clear the clutter so you're able to focus on the paperwork that you actually need to deal with. wikiHow Staff: I think I might need to start having a digital file for all my stuff now. Julie Naylon: It's really great and as long as you're backing up your computer, it's just really great because if I ever need to find a document, I can easily find it. Honestly, one of the big things with paperwork and file caps is that nobody wants to file and it's really not a fun process. So being able to scan something so quickly, label it and put it in a folder on your computer is much easier than opening a giant file cabinet and trying to find the proper file. wikiHow Staff: My last question to wrap up our conversation today is regarding suitcases, back to the suitcase scenario, you just got back from a trip or you're just having a lot of new suitcases for Christmas, for example. I'm curious, what are some ways to both store suitcases but also maximize that storage? Do you have any insights or tips on how to do that? Julie Naylon: Yeah, definitely. One other thing too, I'd love to add is a lot of times people don't pack right away when they get home from a trip, I always recommend packing within 24 hours from coming home from a trip to get everything out and then a good way to store suitcases would be depending on how often you travel, or I have some clients who travel a lot for business, you want to keep that suitcase that you use the most closest to you. So you don't have to go far away to get that suitcase in and out again. Another good idea for storing two suitcases would be nesting where you can put the small suitcase within the large suitcase or putting bags within bags, that will help maximize the space. wikiHow Staff: I love the nesting tip as well. We just breezed through 11 or so different questions related to general decluttering, cleaning rooms, organizing clothes, and lastly, some miscellaneous questions about storing items. I wanted to thank you so much for taking some time out of your morning or afternoon to chat with us today. Page